Writing a Top 10 List

For my students, creating a list of 10 things is pretty rigorous. Some of them ended up repeating ideas, others really stretched their thinking. I am also very proud that they are sounding out their words! :) 

Which Came First?

I LOVE to blow my students' minds! :) We have been working this year to develop an argument to support our opinions about something. These activities are framed as using Ethics from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity. I asked them to think about what came first-the chicken or the egg? When they said "chicken", I said ok, where did the chicken hatch from? "Oh, an egg!"-but who laid the egg? Boom goes the dynamite-their minds were blown!

Here was their response (I wrote what they dictated-this was the day of our Egg Hunt and the students did not have the patience to sound out their words properly).

My Favorite Egg Books

Tis the season for books about eggs! These are some of my favorite read-alouds for this time of year.

Not just about laying eggs, but also about noticing all the little things we forget to be grateful for--the green of the grass, the buttery yellow of dandelions. Until she lays an egg and it's truly extraordinary!

I love reading this story aloud because the different chicks have different dialects-I can do a French accent, a Southern one. The cat has dreams of omelets but has trouble luring poultry to lay him some eggs. A good book for problem solving as well.

A classic, I know. But I love stories about eggs that hatch something unexpected. Jessica finds a pebble that hatches a "chicken" (really it's an alligator). Leading to an unexpected friendship.

Duck and Goose squabble over who gets to raise the baby that hatches out of an egg they found. Except a bit of a surprise at the end-I love to see if the kids figure it out.

A non-fiction story all about the different kinds of eggs. Eggs are colorful. Eggs are clever. I even learned some new facts reading this book!

Multiple Perspectives

Multiple Perspectives is one of my favorite concepts from Kaplan's Depth and Complexity to do with my Kinder students. In the beginning, this is very difficult for them. The world revolves around them and they have trouble putting themselves in someone else's shoes.

But the more we do these activities regularly, the better they get at it. I see them not only being able to think more deeply but also developing empathy through these activities.

We read the poem:

Mirror by Silvia Plath

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever you see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful---
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is a part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

I only use the first stanza because the 2nd one gets a little kooky (it is Sylvia Plath after all). But we discuss how the mirror feels and what it sees. Then the students chose an object and wrote from its perspective. How would it feel? What would it see? What would it wish for?

I am so proud of their results! They are all creative ideas and they really showed how well they can put themselves in another's shoes.